http://www.connpost.com/Stories/0,1413,96~3750~1676652,00.html

Gun law flaws surprise to few
By MICHAEL P. MAYKO

Neither opponents nor proponents of tougher gun control laws were surprised Friday when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found no proof the statutes reduce firearm violence.

“I’ve been saying that for 25 years,” said Robert Crook, executive director for the Coalition of Connecticut Sportsmen. “Tougher gun-control laws only effect the law-abiding citizen. Criminals will do whatever they have to get a gun.”

The CDC appointed a task force of scientists to review 51 published studies about the effectiveness of eight types of gun-control laws, including banning specific firearms or ammunition, barring felons from buying firearms, and setting mandatory waiting periods and registration requirements.

In every case the task force found “insufficient evidence to determine effectiveness.” The agency said it would not spend money on any future studies.

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“No, it doesn’t surprise me,” Matt Bennett, a spokesman for the Americans for Gun Safety Foundation, said about CDCP’s findings. “What concerns us is that there are laws on the books that no one is being prosecuted for.”

There’s one particular issue that upsets Rick Millo, the owner of Valley Firearms in Shelton.

Millo can’t understand why people who lie on their background check and are refused permission to purchase a gun aren’t prosecuted.

“That’s a crime [that carries a maximum five-year prison term],” said Millo. “But I know of no one who was prosecuted.”

His claim is borne out by the Americans for Gun Safety Foundation, which examined federal prosecutions for gun crimes in all 50 states.

They claim that Connecticut in those two years was one of two states to have no prosecutions under that law despite an estimated 470 people lying on the forms.

They also claim that federal prosecutors in Connecticut brought no charges under laws that prohibit possession of a firearm in a school zone or selling firearms to a minor.

“The federal statistics show clearly that ‘enforce the gun laws on the books’ is a slogan, not a policy,” said Jim Kessler, AGSF research and policy director.

But U.S. Attorney Kevin J. O’Connor defended his office, saying the prosecution of gun crimes has increased 100 percent since 2001.

O’Connor, who became Connecticut’s chief federal prosecutor last November, conceded that the largest numbers of federal prosecutions for gun crimes are of felons in possession of firearms. That charge carries a minimum five-year sentence.

“What worries me right now is a felon walking down the street with a gun,” said O’Connor. “One way we’ve found that we can save lives is by taking that person off the street.”

He pointed out that eight of the nine homicides solved in Hartford last year were committed by felons illegally possessing firearms.

He said his Project Safe Neighborhoods programs in New Haven and Bridgeport is one reason the murder rates are down in those two communities. That program involves a weekly review by state and federal prosecutors of all arrests in which a gun was found by police in those communities.

O’Connor said he could easily triple the number of felony possession charges brought by federal prosecutors. However, he said he’s found more can be accomplished by working with state prosecutors and using the threat of federal charges to obtain state court guilty pleas.

Crook and Millo applaud any effort that targets the real source of gun crimes

criminals.

“If we want to reduce gun crimes, going after the criminals who commit them is the way to go,” said Crook.

Bennett said federal law enforcement agencies like the FBI and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosive Devices could do much more.

For instance, Bennett said they could:

? trace every crime in which a gun was seized to establish possible patterns;

? track from which states seized guns are coming and then work with those federal prosecutors;

? check every seized gun against the FBI stolen gun registry;

? and bring more cases against people who possess firearms with obliterated serial numbers.